Chapter 6: The Gap in Memory

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"Hey, you goin' in or not?" Cross called, breaking Allen's train of thoughts.

Turning around on his heel, Allen replied with a smile, "Yeah, I'm coming."

Later that night, Allen sprawled across his newly dressed bed, staring up at the same ceiling he had been staring last night. Since leaving Cross' manor with the twins, he had been quiet, which worried the twins but then he half lied to them by saying that he was merely thinking of the matter at hand; the Fourteenth Noah. Mana caught on the lie, however, did not push the subject.

Allen looked back at his past before the night of his parents' unfortunate fate. He recalled when he first met Neah and Mana when he was five. His father was away at work, and his mother had brought him with her to visit their relatives. It was then revealed that his mother and the Campbell twins' father were siblings, and his father was the older brother of Cornelia, making him, and Neah, and Mana as whole cousins. After that first memory of him with his cousins and friends, he remembered well the things they had done in the past years that had followed, which was full of mischief from Neah, and sometimes from Mana also. And then, more memories of the past came pouring in, almost forgetting the main reason as to why he was reminiscing the past until he realized some gaps.

Bolting up with wide eyes in realization, the silver eyed boy asked the air in silence, "When the hell did I meet that bastard?"

"Swearing, are we? Eh?" someone familiar, a female, spoke from the doorway that made the boy jerk in surprise.

"Belle!? When…?"

"Just now when you swore." Belle, who was leaning on the door frame with her hands clasped behind, smiled at her charge though she was not pleased to hear the words that came out of the boy's lips.

"Well, aren't you sneaky? I didn't hear you opening my door in my bedroom." Allen commented with a snort as his lips curved a little upwards.

"Your door is wide open, Young Master, if you hadn't noticed it yet." Belle rolled her eyes and chuckled.

"Oh." was all Allen said.

Belle sauntered in as gracefully as she had been ever since Allen had known her and sat beside the latter. "You know," she said. "Your parents won't be please to hear you say such awful words. They did not raise you to be like that."

"Yeah…" Allen trailed off as he turned his head to stare on his lap, feeling the emptiness once again that he was sure he did not feel before. Maybe the deaths of my parents have only sink in my mind now, he thought to himself.

"That's why I don't like you hanging out with Cross. He is a young gentleman, yet at the same time is ill mannered. He's rubbing on you, isn't he?"

Looking back at Belle, the boy asked, "What?"

The woman sighed as she closed her eyes briefly. "I knew it, Allen. He's a good boy, but sometimes he's just…just a…"

"Jerk?" suggested Allen, filling in the blank.

"Yes, that!" Belle pointed at her charge for a second. "Though, I prefer you would not say anything like that anymore. That's why Lady Cornelia got mad at him before." She shook her head in dismay.

"Is it because of his being short-tempered and ill mouth that made aunt Cornelia wanted to have his head in a golden platter?" he inquired, remembering what had transpired back at Cross' manor.

Smiling, the woman nodded her head. "Yep." She said. "I see, you still remember that day when you and the twins were five and Cross being three years older than you."

No, I don't actually.

"I was there as your nanny, you know. Lord Cyrus was talking with Lord and Lady Marian while I was serving their tea. I made you children some apple juice to drink and cookies to eat. When I came to serve you your lunch, I heard from the door what Cross been teaching you. He sometimes said swearing words in front of anyone, which he got from his father much to his mother's horror, and then you kids did not understand what the meaning of those words were. Those words that were new to you then was exciting, and so, before I could even open my mouth to protest or move, you and the twins started running around, yelling 'bastard' and 'idiot'." Belle paused as she chuckled at the next thing she remembered. "Lady Cornelia was beyond mortified and livid upon hearing her children and her nephew greeted her."

"Why? Why would she be?"

"Because…you three said, 'we're back, bitch!'"

"…oh…"

"Yep. Oh…is the understatement of that moment. It was very funny, though." she laughed lightly. "Anyway, it's late now. You should rest." She said as she stood up and tucked Allen in his bed. "Good night, young man." She kissed her charge's forehead.

"G'night."

And with that, Belle turned the lampshade atop the nightstand next to the bed off before she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click of the knob.

Allen fell asleep not long after that talk, which put his mind to rest. And then, he dreamed of something he believed was a part of his forgotten past.

It was night on Allen's eighth birthday. His parents had planned on bringing him to the circus as his birthday present, and so they went out for that occasion since there was a circus in town from the neighbouring country. Allen had been so ecstatic that he could not stay still, though his parents could not blame him for it would be his first time seeing a circus, and especially on his birthday. However, the boy's happiness was short lived.

The carriage the Walker family was riding in was pulled by a rampaging horse after hearing a gunshot from somewhere nearby. The chauffeur had done his all to calm the white horse in vain because the said horse only struggled more to get away from the carriage that had it holding down from its freedom. After a moment, the white horse had managed to get free and had run away as fast as he could, resulting in the carriage tumbling a couple of times in the side walk.

Unfortunately for the chauffeur, he was hit on his chest by the hind leg of the horse that had sent him flying away, which killed him instantly. And, Allen had found his mother dead already due to the bullet that was buried in the right side of her skull. As for the boy's father, he was very much alive and did manage to call for medics while Allen was lucky enough to sustain only swollen forehead, bruises, and scratches. But then, not twelve hours later, Allen's father died of severe haemorrhage in his brain.

The next day in the hospital, Allen was visited by a man; Lord Cyrus Campbell, his uncle.

The little boy was not himself anymore when Cyrus had visited him and had found him only sitting quietly while staring at the wall distantly. "Allen…" the man had called the boy's name in sorrow. "I did not wish for this to happen nor did I wish for you to be like this. Please…young man. Your uncle's here, and your aunt Cornelia and your cousins will be here shortly, so can you come back to reality now? It's a tragedy, and I do not want Cornelia and the twins to see you like this. It'll break their hearts, and I know you do not wish for it to happen, Allen." Cyrus had told the boy. He loved Allen as though he was his son, and to see the boy in the state of losing his self had hurt him more than the man had thought it would. "Allen…if you continue this, I'm afraid…afraid you'll…" he had trailed off when he had heard three pairs of footsteps drawing closer in a fast pace and it frightened him to let his sister-in-law and nephews see Allen at the moment. Cyrus had stared at the closed door with wide frightful eyes, dreading the time when the door would open, which it had not as he heard the doctor talking to them.

Letting out a sigh, Cyrus had once again turned his attention back to Allen and had tried to talk some sense back to the boy in futile attempt. "I think this is the only way…" He had whispered, his voice laced with regret. "…but, doing this will make you forget about me and every memory that has connection with me. But then again, we're going to make another memory! One that is full of happy memory, okay Allen?"

Cyrus had never married. He did not found his wife, and so he had no children, but little Allen made him feel the sensation of being a father, along with Mana and Neah. So, in order to save Allen from his would be worst fate, he had to make Allen forget him and feel nothing about the death of his parents except the obligations of being the son.

Cyrus did not want Allen to grieve to the point of calling the evil from within to bring his parents back to the world of the living.

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